U.S. Reps. Amash, Conyers team up to sponsor bill seeking limits on NSA surveillance

Oct. 29, 2013

U.S. Reps. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, shown in November 2012, and John Conyers, D-Detroit, are among the cosponsors of the new legislation that would end bulk collection of communication records of Americans by the National Security Agency and requiring greater reporting to Congress of surveillance authorized by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. / Cory Morse//The Grand Rapids Press

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Detroit Free Press Washington Staff

U.S. Reps. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, and John Conyers, D-Detroit, shown on Sept. 29, are among the cosponsors of the new legislation that would end bulk collection of communication records of Americans by the National Security Agency and requiring greater reporting to Congress of surveillance authorized by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. / Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press

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WASHINGTON — After narrowly losing an effort to rein in U.S. spying activities, two Michigan congressmen from opposite ends of the political spectrum are back as backers of a measure with an even better chance of passage.

U.S. Reps. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, and John Conyers, D-Detroit, are among the cosponsors of the new legislation that would end bulk collection of communication records of Americans by the National Security Agency and requiring greater reporting to Congress of surveillance authorized by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The new measure incorporates some of the provisions outlined in an amendment proposed by Amash, a libertarian firebrand, and Conyers, a liberal icon, that lost on a narrow 205-217 vote in July in the U.S. House.

This time, the legislation is being coauthored in the Senate by Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., and, in the House, by Rep James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee, making its likelihood of passage much greater.

In the House, the legislation has some 70 cosponsors already, including one other from Michigan — Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Milford.

“The days of unfettered spying on the American people are numbered,” said Amash, who has been championing an effort to pull back NSA surveillance activities for months. “This is the bill the public has been waiting for.”